The New Jersey Ironmen open their second season Sunday at the Prudential Center, and it's likely to be a year in which the franchise's biggest challenge will come off the field, rather than on it.

Year 1 was about selling the sport. Year 2 is about survival.

When the Major Indoor Soccer League folded in June, the Ironmen, along with Chicago, Detroit and Milwaukee, formed the Xtreme Soccer League. And while there are just four teams, the idea was to be financially sound and have a solid business plan.

According to Ironmen GM Tony Novo, each team posted a $2 million bond and committed to five years. The XSL will also have a salary cap and a league office.

Meanwhile, Baltimore, Philadelphia and La Raza de Monterrey went their own way. They picked up two other teams and formed the National Indoor Soccer League.

"The other league decided not to have a league office, and I don't think you can have a professional league without a league office," Novo said.

The NISL, which doesn't have a salary cap, will play an 18-game schedule from November to April. The XSL will play a 20-game schedule from December to April.

As history has shown, rival indoor soccer leagues is the first step to the disappearance of the sport. Selling the indoor game is one thing; selling a fractured indoor game is another.

The odds are pretty good that one league will be gone next year.

But there is still a season to be played. Ironmen coach Omid Namazi ripped up last season's roster and put together a new team he believes can compete for a championship.

"As an expansion team, you go in with a lot of unknowns," Namazi said. "We tried to get the best and most technical players, regardless of whether they had indoor experience, and we brought them in. Certain players adjusted to the indoor game faster than others. We kept the ones we felt had a shorter learning curve and let go of the ones we felt didn't adjust at all."

Only five players return from a team that finished 14-16 and lost in the first round of the playoffs. And that includes midfielder Goran Vasic, who will be a player/assistant coach this season.

A championship this year would be nice, but if a year from now we're talking about Year 3 of the Ironmen, that might be even better.

CUP TRIUMPH

The United States women's Under-20 team won the FIFA U-20 World Cup Sunday with a 2-1 victory over North Korea in Chile.

First-half goals by Sydney Leroux and Alex Morgan were enough to make North Korea's goal in second-half stoppage time of little concern. Leroux, who scored five goals, was the tournament's leading scorer. She also was named the World Cup's top player.

Morgan, who had four goals, was named the tournament's second-best player.

The two combined for nine of the team's 12 goals. And that was more than enough as Alyssa Naeher, who was named the World Cup's top goalkeeper, allowed just one goal in five games.

"It's something we've been working toward for two years now and it just puts all of our hard work into perspective when you see a result from it," Naeher said. "It's something we've all wanted very badly for a long time and it's the best feeling in the world."

It was the second title at that age level for the Americans. They won the inaugural Under-19 Women's World Cup in 2002, took third in 2004 and finished fourth when the tournament became U-20 in 2006.

And how's this for a trifecta? For U.S. coach Tony DiCicco, it was his third world title in women's soccer. He also coached the 1996 Olympic team to a gold medal and the 1999 national team to a World Cup title.

DiCicco, who was the commissioner of the defunct Women's United Soccer League, will coach the Boston Breakers when the new league -- Women's Professional Soccer -- debuts in the spring.